What Hiring Manager hears - “Limited skills, brown-nosing, seeking a paycheck working as little as possible”

It still amazes me that job candidate’s think the way to get a job is to say things about themselves. Hiring Managers aren’t interested in you telling them you are a “hard worker”, they are interested in you showing them. What situation did you face in the past, what action did you take to correct the situation and what was the outcome?

Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior

Demonstrating through a specific example, a story, lets the future employer see how you worked in the past. They can take that specific story and visualize you solving their problem, their reason for wanting to hire you. They will also use it to remember you. Here’s a true Customer Service example I gave during an interview:

I was the Store Manager for Best Products in Hopewell Virginia. It was 8 PM on Christmas Eve when I got a phone call from a customer who had bought a ride-on car for his 8-year-old son. The father was putting the car together after his son went to bed when he found the battery for the car was missing from the package. The father had called me to ask what I was going to do about it.

I told the man I would meet him at the store. I called my Assistant Manager just in case it was a set-up (it wasn’t) and we drove to the store. We found the battery the man was missing and his 8 year-old son’s Christmas was saved.

Now I could have said “I’m a people person” when asked about my customer service skills or I could have said “I love people.” As Jay Block famously said “My dog’s a people person, but I would never hire her.” The story, specific to the job, was a key to landing the job.

By setting up situations similar to the ones you will face with the new company, your specific examples will demonstrate that you are “hard working, motivated, and a team player” without ever saying it.